


Fallin' Off the Edge Today

by Aer



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, The Avengers are not Heroes, This is what happens when I go through my Google Drive, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2017-12-14 14:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aer/pseuds/Aer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers are not heroes. A drabble exploration of why not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ...Yeah, this has been sitting on my Google Drive for over a year- I wrote it not long after the movie was released. Then I actually went through said Google Drive, turned this up, cleaned it up, and posted it. Please be nice to me?
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers. Title is from Hero by Skillet.

_“If we can’t protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.”_

* * *

The Avengers saved Manhattan; no one can contest that. But one good deed does not a hero make. The Avengers are not the heroes the world would make them.

* * *

 Natasha Romanov earned her codename Black Widow; an assassin bred, born, and raised, right and wrong, good and bad were not something she was taught to believe in. Becoming an agent of SHIELD did nothing to change that. She is not a hero.

* * *

Clint Barton was exposed to the idea of evil from a young age; an abusive father taught him all about being bad. No one was there to show him the other side, and becoming a sniper at SHIELD only revealed more of the world’s ugliness. He is not a hero.

* * *

Bruce Banner carries within him the knowledge that he will never be normal, much less good enough to be a hero. After all, he is the Hulk; the green monster is no more than his own dark side, released and given solid form. He is not a hero.

* * *

Thor seems good. He is a demigod, heir to the throne of Asgard, and in some ways, innocent to the ways of Earth. But, even though his time on Earth in the company of Jane Foster has taught him compassion and humility, beneath it all is still a man who loves war more than he will ever tolerate peace. He is not a hero.

* * *

Tony Stark is a man no one expects to be good, despite all the evidence to the contrary. He changed after Afghanistan, anyone can see that; some would even argue the changes were for the better. He built the Iron Man suit, ended his company’s production of weapons; truly seemed to strive for peace, for atonement for the harm he’d caused. But in the end, he is a man of war; he just fights them himself now, instead of sending out his weapons. He is not a hero.

* * *

Steve Rogers, of all of them, should be good. He is Captain America, the first hero ever. A paragon of American virtue. But he is also a soldier, and his unit is the Avengers. They have won his loyalty above anything else, and they are not heroes. So neither is he.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated solely to WhimsysMayhem, for asking for a Steve centered continuation. This is my reflection on how the Steve of my 'verse would react to the events of CA:WS, and a little bit of Civil War (thought my reaction to Age of Ultron and Civil War otherwise will be to stick my fingers in my ears and sing loudly, because I am a Tony Stark fan and I can't stand what canon is doing). 
> 
> This was written in roughly 10 minutes and has undergone zero betaing, so be nice, please?

Steve Rogers is not a hero. 

He is _good_ , there is no doubt of that, he is the essence of everything good about the flag that he wears. He is devoted to justice, freedom, and equality, and it is for these reasons, that he cannot be a hero. 

Because a hero would not tear down the organization protecting the world (an organization rotten to the core, an organization that has become the parasite it carries within it), a hero would not stand face to face with a villain and lay down their weapon. 

A hero would not hide a wanted criminal from the law, even if that criminal was innocent. A hero would fight for a fair trial. 

Steve Rogers will always be Captain America, because he will always stand for the qualities that make America good. 

But right now, he cannot be a hero. 

He chooses not to be, because to be a good hero would mean going against everything he believes, and- (and it’s _Bucky_ , it’s Bucky they want to take and put on trial and lock away forever, Bucky who had no choice, who was brainwashed and tortured until he had nothing left, and if being a hero means turning Bucky in, then Steve doesn’t want to be a hero, because he is a good man)- and he knows that America can be better than this, so until they are, he won’t be their hero. 

The Avengers are not heroes, and Steve is their captain. 

So it should be no surprise, when the agents come knocking, demanding he be a good hero and bring the villain in, that Steve will tell them no. That Steve tells them that they will find no heroes here. 

Steve Rogers is not a hero.

He is an Avenger.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For wolfofwinter, for refusing to let me forget about this verse again, at least until I had offered a bit more clarity on where I envision this world going. Once more written in a ten minute writing challenge, and unbetad, so don't kill me!

The data dump doesn't last long enough for the world to get the whole story. 

And why would it? 

Hydra, Steve is beginning to discover, should really have named itself after that world devouring serpent Thor once told them about, though their own name works well too. 

SHIELD, after all, was only one of Hydra’s heads, and though they had chopped it off at the source, there are still many heads lying in wait. Heads that, the Avengers are discovering, often wear the faces of friends, enemies, and leaders alike. 

Project Insight and the Winter Soldier were but one scheme, and an almost laughable one at that. Certainly they did lots of damage, caused an enormous distraction, and ultimately allowed for the shadow heads waiting in the wings to make their moves. 

The Superhero Registration Act enters the world with a whisper, but Steve feels it in his gut like a sucker punch. It demands that all heroes be registered, recorded, no movement allowed without permission, and Steve knows exactly where it comes from. Everyone believes that Hydra is gone, that it fell with the tree it had rotted, but the Avengers know better. 

JARVIS, after all, seized all the files Natasha threw to the world before the NSA could clean the mess up, and what Tony found there was enough to make Steve sick. 

The Winter Soldier may have been Hydra’s blunt instrument, but the organization had learned from Schmidt’s grand plans and grandiose failure, and the rest of the group had become a subtle knife. The very day Schmidt's plane buried itself in the Arctic, his followers invented a new strategy. Open war had failed. It was time for subterfuge. 

Captain America had been the hero to stop their bid for power, so they would do him one better- they’d make him a _hero_ to the masses, and teach the masses exactly what a hero was. Captain America embodied society's ideals, to be sure. But ideals can change. And who better to help them along than the future of society itself?

Hydra kept meticulous records. Famous actors, politicians, businessmen and more. Mob and mafia members, government employees from Directors to janitors, they all answered to Hydra’s whim, and it was through them that a world was shaped. 

Heroes fought for society’s ideals, in this world, and in this world, society's ideals quickly became Hydra’s. It was a long term plan, but on the day that Captain America could reveal a conspiracy in the government (in the organizations that protect the people), and be decried for acting without oversight, without restraint, without _heroism_ , Hydra knew it had succeeded. 

The Avengers were not heroes. 

They couldn't be.

After all, the Avengers cared about doing what was right, not what was allowed. 

So, Hydra declared them villains.

**Author's Note:**

> ...Maybe I should attempt an expansion of this at some point? I don't know...


End file.
